There has been a change in theory regarding Emotional Intelligence (EQ) over IQ. The first discovery was in the 1920’s a sociologist by the name of Edward Thorndike who suggested that measuring IQ was an unfair measure of intelligences because learning was relative to environment and educational structure. In other words IQ could not be fairly determined if the individual was not in an climate conducive to learning such as: environment, upbringing, culture and personal experiences. This resulted in IQ scores varying notably by ethnic groups, socioeconomic levels and physical environment. This theory was tabled for many years until other researchers became intrigued.

Then in the 1990’s even more researchers became interested in the subject matter and Solvay, Mayer and Caruso then later Goldman coined the term Emotional Intelligence. The measurement of EI came in the early 2000 when Reuven Bar-On created the emotional quotient (EQ). To everyone’s surprise the scales changed and individuals and groups who scored low in IQ had remarkable higher scores in EQ.

So why is this important? Well many companies today are evaluating their current and potential staff based on EQ scores. Level of EQ scores can actually determine the performance and success of that individual in the company. Performance of employees, political figures and leaders can be directly based on EQ scores, which is why so much attention paid to EQ.

Emotional Intelligence scores and the Latino: read more